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SAFENET

Wildland Fire Safety & Health Reporting Network

SAFENET Event Information

Create Agency Response

SAFENET ID:

20250708-0001        [Corrective Actions]

Event Start Date:

07/01/2025 1920

Event Stop Date:

07/01/2025 1950 

Incident Name:

Chicago Basin XXX - Wilderness

Fire Number:

 

State:

Colorado

Jurisdiction:

USFS

Local Unit:

San Juan National Forest

Incident Type:

Wildland, All Hazard

Incident Activity:

Transport to/from

Stage of Incident:

Initial Attack, Other

Position Title:

Assistant Center Manager 

Task:

Search and Rescue - Helicopter Extraction of injured party 

Management Level:

N/A

Resources Involved:

Type 3 Short Haul Helicopter, Helicopter Manager, SAR Personnel, Type 6 Engines, Various Engine Overhead, Duty Officers 

Contributing Factors

Contributing Factors:

Communications

Human Factors:

 

Other Factors:

 

Narrative

Describe in detail what happened including the concern or potential issue, the environment (weather, terrain, fire behavior, etc), and the resulting health issue.

At about 1920 on 07/01/2025 Durango Interagency Dispatch Center realized we were having a network outage - phones were cut off mid-call, the radio was down, and desktops had no connection. We had a new fire on BLM land that resources were attempting to gain access to in an area with no cell phone coverage, so no easy way to even let them know we were not operational. A Type 3 Helicopter Short Haul was in the middle of a Search and Rescue operation in the Weminuche Wilderness on the San Juan NF - actively in the process of picking up an ill subject from a mountain-side. We now had no way of communicating with the helicopter, and we were no longer able to flight follow them on AFF. Incidents Involved: Chicago Basin XXX - Wilderness (CO-SJF-000483); Cougar Fire - (CO-TSD-000483 ; FireCode S438)

Immediate Action Taken

Reporting Individual : please describe actions you took to correct or mitigate the unsafe/unhealthful event.

Durango has a non-FS internet available, so we got that hooked up. We were able to get wildcad working in order to have access to phone numbers - we sent an alert text from wildcad to our resources with a government cell phone number to call, and got AFF back up and working to track the helictoper. Durango contacted a Duty Officer by cell that was near the area with the fire - he returned to station for us, and made contact with those resources to let them know Dispatch radios and network were down. Durango contacted the helicopter manager by cell phone, luckily he was in cell service. He was able to let the helicopter know that Dispatch radios and network were down. Another of the Duty Officers working on access to the fire on BLM land made contact via cell phone - he then became another point of contact for both the fire resources and the helicopter. Durango was making plans to send a resource to our COOP a 20 minute drive away when the network came back up.

Agency Response

20250708-0001-CA001

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